Man-Crush – Chris Brown

Every Friday in this space I usually do a music post featuring a Guilty Pleasure song. These for me have included 80s hairbands, jazz, chick songs, classic rock, and anything a high school girl would get into. A month ago, I did a post on someone that CLEARLY falls in that last category – Justin Bieber.

I think that post may have gone too guilty in the eyes of one of my followers – the very humorous Drunken Cyclist. (If you haven’ been to his site, go! He drinks some great wine and, unlike me, stays sober enough to actually write informative, coherent reviews. His tagline – “I have three passions: wine, bikes, travel, family, and math.”) Since then, DC’s made no secret of his sheer disgust in my affinity for the Biebs through various snide comments. It’s OK, I stand by my post. In fact, I’m going to take it further.

It got me thinking that man-crushes have to be the epitome of Guilty Pleasures. We’re talking “forbidden love” stuff here – where not only do I like the song, I’m really into the guy as well. I realize there’s a part of this that can sound homophobic – that adoring another guy is something that should be shunned. Trust me, I’m the furthest thing from being a homophobe. But I’m also the furthest thing from gay – unless you count that one time… It’s just that it used to be perfectly fine for a guy to compliment another’s appearance and no one would’ve cared. Nowadays, merely complimenting another guy is a complete social no-no. So willingness to admit this kind of crush is very difficult and impossibly guilty.

Anyhoo, I’m introducing a new type of post that’s going to celebrate this haunting taboo. I’m not sure how often I’m going to do it. I don’t have a whole lot of them. Let’s just say I have “more than a couple.” Without further ado, I present…

Chris Brown, from rollingstone.com

Let’s get the ugly part out of the way. The first I ever heard of him was when he smacked around then-girlfriend Rihanna in a drunken stupor. I’m not about to defend him on that – it was wrong. But he’s kept his nose clean since then and everyone deserves a second chance.

So why is he a man-crush? Obviously, he’s a good-looking guy and he has an angelic singing voice. But so does Josh Groban.

zmemusic.com

What sets him apart is that the guy has KILLER dance moves. All these qualities are completely evident in this video.

See what I mean? Singing, looks, dance moves – that’s a complete package. Oh, and speaking of package, there’s this (WARNING! WARNING!) picture of him. Seriously, how does he dance with that thing?

Here’s another great song he’s on. This is one of my favorite songs of the year and why it hasn’t hit it huge yet is beyond me.

So do you have any man-crushes? Girl-crushes? Would it be easier if I said “Opposite of your usual sexual preference-crush?”

Alright, since you called me out, I guess I have to respond. First, unless you are under 23, a ‘man’ crush on Justin Bieber is just flat out perplexing. I am not even sure why I know who he is! But we have been around that block before and you clearly chose to be perplexing.

As for the Chris Brown thing–I agree that I had no idea who he was either until he performed some human batting practice on Rihanna. And therein lies my problem with him–the only reason I know who he is now is because he beat the stuffing out of his girlfriend. That is not to say that he is not perhaps a very talented (and well-endowed) performer, but if the main reason a large portion of the public even knows your name is because you smacked around your more famous girlfriend’, well, I really don’t have time for you.

For me, the father of two boys, it sends a terrible message–the any publicity is good publicity message. He may have kept his ‘nose clean’ since bruising up Rihanna, but if he had not done that (and they simply ‘broke up’) would either one of us know (or care) who he was today?

That was the first I’d heard of him, but he was well known before that. And since then he’s had a string of hits, so the domestic issue isn’t his only claim to fame. I don’t get the sense he’s trying to cash in on it either as he’s still being put through the wringer on it.

I get all of that, but I guess it is just me–I never heard of him before (but I had heard of Rihanna) perhaps because his name can not be much more ‘vanilla’. But now, every time I hear his name, I know who he is because of what he did. It would be like becoming a fan of Yanni (’cause I know you’re a Yanni fan) only after hearing of him because he smacked his wife around.\

Can people change? Sure. But if it were my daughter, I would ask that she find someone who just needed to change their haircut….